Saturday, March 24, 2018

SOLSC: March for Our Lives

I met up
with some friends from our Take Back the Future group (that’s another story)
near the start of Manhattan’s march for sensible gun laws and safe schools.
When seven of us had gathered, we texted others that we were setting out to
join the mass of people at Central Park West. And pretty soon our group split
up as well, as younger people were willing to hike 14 blocks to where the
police were now directing would-be marchers. The rest of us played the

“old
people” card, and we ,were able to join the “march” at 72nd Street, which at
this point meant standing in a “police pen” and listening to the rally being
broadcast out to the street.

That took
up half an hour. Then the mass of people in the next block were allowed to join
us—but the people in front of us were not moving. As our block filled up, it
became increasingly uncomfortable for those of us over 80, so I forged a path
through the crowd to get to the nearest corner where we could leave the march.
My older friends took the subway home, while I stopped at my local gym,
fortunately nearby, to use the bathroom, watched some of the march speakers in D.C., and went back out to rejoin the march.

Thousands
and thousands of people were now moving fairly quickly along Central Park West,
59th Street, and down Sixth Avenue. A lot of derisive chants were directed at
the Trump Hotel at Columbus Circle, as well as Fox News headquarters, but
largely the signs and people were not partisan. There was even one lone man on
the sidewalk with a sign reading: “This hunter wants AR15s banned.”

Many young
people, including young children, but very mixed in terms of age, but also
mostly white, which may be more representative of Manhattan than of the rest of
the city. Signs were very imaginative, and here are some of my favorites.

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I’m
participating in the 11th annual Slice of Life Challenge over at Two
Writing Teachers. This is day 24 of the 31-day
challenge. It’s not too late to make space for daily writing in a
community that is encouraging, enthusiastic, and eager to read what you have to
slice about. Join in!